“We also expect a step-up in infrastructure-related expense growth next year as we recognize higher depreciation and operating costs from running an expanded infrastructure footprint.”

In context

“et, we plan to selectively allocate incremental headcount toward four key company priorities, AI, infrastructure, Reality Labs, and monetization as well as toward our regulatory and compliance needs. Of those areas, we expect AI to be the largest area of increased investment as we further invest in Generative AI across our core products, internal tooling, and research efforts. We aim to offset some of this growth by continuing our efficiency focus and reducing planned hiring in other areas across the company in 2024. The net effect of our efforts to close out our 2023 hiring underruns and our efficiency-focused 2024 budgeting process is that we expect to end next year with reported, in-seat headcount meaningfully higher than our current headcount, but to grow at a slower rate beyond that. We also expect a step-up in infrastructure-related expense growth next year as we recognize higher depreciation and operating costs from running an expanded infrastructure footprint. In addition, we continue to monitor the active regulatory landscape, including the increasing legal and regulatory headwinds in the EU and the US that could significantly impact our business and our financial results. Of note, the FTC is seeking to substantially modify our existing consent order and impose additional restrictions on our ability to operate. We are contesting this matter, but if we are unsuccessful it would have an adverse impact on our business. Turning now to the revenue outlook. We expect fourth quarter 2023 total revenue to be in the range of $36.5 billion to $40 billion. Our guidance assumes a foreign currency tailwind of approximately 2% to year-over-year total revenue growth in the fourth quarter, based on current exchange rates. Turning now to the expense outlook. W”